RESUMO
In recent years, the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) has become one of the most successful wild bird species in urban environments across Europe. Hooded crows can cause several problems in cities, including trash scattering, noise disturbance, and aggressive behavior toward humans or pets, and they can be potential vectors of pathogens. To find effective solutions, the public has to be involved in the decision-making process in urban planning management, managed by the city administration. In this study, we surveyed the attitude of people in Hungary towards crows and crow management by collecting information using an online questionnaire containing 65 questions published in 14 Facebook groups. We found that many people were familiar with corvid species and had personal experience with them. In most cases, these experiences were not negative, so the crows were not or only rarely perceived to cause problems to people, such as aggressive behavior, damage to cars or stealing something. Most respondents recognized that the presence of large numbers of hooded crows is a problem to be solved and acknowledged that they do not know how to resolve it. The majority of people expressed their interest in raising public awareness of crows but not in their management actions, which they believe should be implemented by experts. Most respondents preferred passive, harmless methods. More direct methods such as egg/chick removal from the nest, control by trapping, poisoned baits or firearms, or oral contraceptives were the least acceptable. These results express the difficulty in identifying a control method for managing hooded crow populations that is both acceptable to most people and effective at the same time. This study demonstrates the importance of involving public opinion in wildlife management and providing more information to citizens to reduce human-crow conflicts.
RESUMO
Urbanization is one of the most prevalent drivers of biodiversity loss, yet few taxonomic groups are remarkably successful at adapting to urban environments. We systematically surveyed the global literature on the effects of urbanization on species of family Corvidae (crows, choughs, jackdaws, jays, magpies, nutcrackers, ravens, rooks, treepies) to assess the occurrence of corvids in urban environments and the factors affecting their success. We found a total of 424 primary research articles, and the number of articles has increased exponentially since the 1970s. Most studies were carried out in cities of Europe and North America (45.5% and 31.4%, respectively) and were directed on a single species (75.2). We found that 30 corvid species (23% of 133 total) regularly occur in urban environments. The majority (72%) of the studies reported positive effects of urbanization on corvids, with 85% of studies detecting population increases and 64% of studies detecting higher breeding success with urbanization. Of the factors proposed to explain corvids' success (availability of nesting sites and food sources, low predation and persecution), food availability coupled with diet shifts emerged as the most important factors promoting Corvidae to live in urban settings. The breeding of corvids in urban environments was further associated with earlier nesting, similar or larger clutches, lower hatching but higher fledging success, reduced home range size and limited territoriality, increased tolerance towards humans and increasing frequency of conflicts with humans. Despite geographic and taxonomic biases in our literature sample, our review indicates that corvids show both flexibility in resource use and behavioral plasticity that enable them to exploit novel resources for nesting and feeding. Corvids can thus be urban exploiters of the large-scale modifications of ecosystems caused by urbanization.
RESUMO
During winter, a large number of rooks gather and defecate at the park of a university clinic. We investigated the prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in these birds and compared recovered isolates with contemporary human isolates. In 2016, fecal samples were collected from 112 trap-captured rooks and investigated for presence of ESBL producers using eosin methylene blue agar supplemented by 2 mg/L cefotaxime; 2,455 contemporary human fecal samples of patients of the clinics sent for routine culturing were tested similarly. In addition, 42 ESBL-producing E. coli isolates collected during the same period from inpatients were also studied. ESBL genes were sought for by PCR and were characterized by sequencing; E. coli ST131 clones were identified. Epidemiological relatedness was determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and confirmed using whole genome sequencing in selected cases. Thirty-seven (33%) of sampled rooks and 42 (1.7%) of human stools yielded ESBL-producing E coli. Dominant genes were bla CTX-M-55 and bla CTX-M-27 in corvid, bla CTX-M-15 and bla CTX-M-27 in human isolates. ST162 was common among rooks. Two rook-derived E. coli belonged to ST131 C1-M27, which was also predominant (10/42) among human fecal and (15/42) human clinical isolates. Another potential link between rooks and humans was a single ST744 rook isolate grouped with one human fecal and three clinical isolates. Despite possible contact, genotypes shared between rooks and humans were rare. Thus, rooks are important as long-distance vectors and reservoirs of ESBL-producing E. coli rather than direct sources of infections to humans in our setting.
